Panna's tiger rich, says census, experts defer

Gauri Shah, TNNMar 25, 2005, 12.05AM IST

MUMBAI: The forest authorities in Madhya Pradesh are pleased as punch. A "fresh" tiger census conducted by the authorities in the Panna tiger reserve between March 18 and 24 claims that it is home to 34 tigers and a cub.

The figures are in keeping with results of the census conducted in January this year, and seem to indicate that not much has changed. However, tiger experts are far from relieved. They believe the census has been doctored by the authorities.

The tiger census engaged approximately 200 personnel who fanned across 543 sq km of the reserve, looking for pug marks and other evidence. According to the analysis, authorities were able to record the presence of 14 male tigers, 20 female tigers and one cub in the Panna tiger reserve.

The exercise was conducted with help from other state forest officials such as A Srivastav, deputy director Kanha National Park, the assistant director from the Bandhavgarh tiger reserve and rangers from the Pench tiger reserve in MP.

The result of the census was reached after the authorities analysed "close to 100 pug marks or tracings".

Wildlife experts, however, are concerned about the "entire process through which this census" was conducted. "The whole census process has been a joke. There has been a complete lack of transparency and the authorities are still avoiding our questions. They apparently have the numbers, but very little explanation for the disappearance of individual animals that have been tracked by experts, over the last few years," said Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

Adding in the same vein, a senior official from the World Wildlife Fund said that such a quick analysis of tiger tracings was extremely rare, if not impossible. "I wasn't present in Panna, but it's quite surprising that the authorities have managed to reach this figure within a matter of hours. It usually takes a few days to analyse pug mark impressions. Even the best experts would take some time to draw such an inference," he said.

While the authorities had sent out a notice inviting external agencies, including NGOs, wildlife scientists and the media, to participate in the tiger tracking mission "to ensure transparency", very few experts were actually included in the exercise.